Photo by Sarah Elmquist
Barges load at one of WinonaÕs elevators. |
Today they try to package it into holiday air fresheners and scented candles -- the smell of Winona in the mid-1800s. Over 150 years ago from bluff to bluff, the region’s aroma year-round wafted from riverside lumber mills, swathing the area in pine dust that drove the population and economy for decades.
They were years of unprecedented growth, as river traffic brought settlers to the area and steamboats ruled the land as the way to haul goods for a burgeoning countryside. But as rail lines began slicing the maps from east to west Winona’s river port began to suffer, and the north to south route along the Mighty Mississippi that had brought so much commerce to the area took a back seat to a new era of rail.
Rail could move freight during winter months when the river was blocked with ice, as well as dry seasons when water levels prevented bigger boats from moving goods along water routes. During the last years of the 19th century, the working river suffered, the lumber industry peaked and it became clear the Mississippi needed work if it were to remain the backbone of freight movement in the U.S.
The federal government became increasingly worried that new rail lines would become a monopoly for transporting goods, and in 1878 Congress authorized the Corps of Engineers to create a 4-and-a-half foot deep channel from St. Paul to the mouth of the Ohio River.
A deeper river: dredging never done
The project would take almost 30 years before it was substantially completed, and was merely the first major attempt at controlling the Father of Waters, as some call the Mississippi River.
Using wing dams, closing dams, shoreline protection and dredging where necessary, the first attempts to systematically deepen the main channel used the river’s own current to help.
Wing dams were constructed to help direct waters to the deeper channel to help the current itself scour the river bottom of silt. The closed dams were put up to keep water from the smaller channels while redirecting it to the main channel. Rocks from bluffs on either side were quarried for the wing dams, and shorelines were protected with rip rap.
As the work of deepening the channel progressed, riverboats were becoming bigger and more powerful. Steamboats had gone from pulling one barge or keelboat to pushing more and more freight in front of them, and newer designed boats needed a yet deeper channel to navigate up and down the river. So in 1907, Congress authorized the Corps to deepen the channel to six feet, to include 2,000 more wing dams, added shore protection, more dredging and two locks.
The technique in using the river’s current to help deepen the channel, however, required a certain amount of water and river flow. Thus, when water levels dipped below a certain level, river traffic halted. In 1925, with the six-foot channel only half completed, the Corps announced that its techniques wouldn’t provide a six-foot channel along the entire river.
By 1927, Congress had a new idea: a nine-foot channel. The River and Harbors Act abandoned the six foot depth concept and called for a deeper river, after hundreds of millions had been spent, with little success. In 1924, only five freight boats were making routine runs between St. Paul and St. Louis, and life on the river was less work, more play.
While Congress had authorized the deeper channel, no money had been budgeted, and the drought and depression in the early 1930s put the river on hold for a few years. By the summer of 1932, the river was so low in Winona that one could wade across its entire expanse.
A new deal, new life for Mississippi
Roosevelt’s New Deal used the nine-foot channel project as a way to get men employed, and in 1933 the huge project began with awesome speed. By 1934, 300 dams had been completed and 16 more were under construction.
The 1930s also marked the birth of the William A. Thompson Dredge, used to clear areas of the river of silt. Using hydraulic suction, silt is sucked up and discharged onto higher ground through pipes floated on pontoons. The Thompson Dredge, now retired, is an example of the massive dredges which used to include living quarters for its workers. Modern dredges are much smaller, don’t include living quarters and can be disassembled for transport.
Lock and Dam 5A was one of the first constructed and was put into operation in 1936, one of a total of 29 locks and dams built. In the last 70 years, it is estimated that nearly 1.5 million cubic yards of silt was dredged from the river bottom.
During the mid 1930s, new high-powered diesel boats were evolving that required less depth to maneuver the river, and traffic began once again to pick up on the working river.
Today: working river as the great connector
Today, the Mississippi River is a major transportation connection for agricultural goods and other bulk materials, working as part of a team that includes rail cars, semis and millions of tons of freight each year. The Minnesota Department of Transportation considers barge freight on the river the most efficient and environmentally sound method of travel for bulk goods.
Last year, 1.7 million tons of freight was either loaded or unloaded at Winona’s port, contributing to nearly 79 million tons moved annually along the Upper Mississippi River and over 490 million delivered along the entire working river. At last count, nearly 17 percent of U.S. intercity freight tonnage is moved on water routes.
The river today carries about $300 million annually in goods away from Winona, with most of the money in the pockets of local and regional farmers. It connects our economy physically to a world market, our present day prosperity to the decades of work and determination it took to get here.
Tucked along the banks of Crooked Slough, Winona’s harbor and the working river it serves is much of why people chose to live along these banks, how they made their fortunes and legacies. And through its ups and downs, the Father of Waters was certainly the father of Winona, forging the route of early settlers in a fledgling nation and remaining a constant economic backbone for lifetimes to come.
|
